Five years ago today, many but not all residents along the Gulf Coast were aware of a gigantic storm in the Gulf of Mexico heading their way. Some prepared for its arrival, boarding up homes and businesses, checking evacuation routes or purchasing supplies to ride out a hurricane. Few, however, were prepared for the storm's arrival two days later - or its aftermath. Hurricane Katrina quickly became one of the worst natural disasters to strike the United States.
Katrina ultimately claimed 1,833 lives in five states. It caused billions of dollars in property damage, disrupted hundreds of thousands of lives, brought horrific destruction to one of the nation's most storied cities , ravaged a popular coastal area and exposed fundamental flaws in the nation's ability to deal with disaster of epic scope. Half a decade later, those most directly impacted by Katrina and the agencies charged with responding to such disasters still are struggling with the storm's aftermath. The lessons learned have come hard.
Mot of the world's attention following the storm was focused on New Orleans. How could it not be? The city's levees collapsed and the city was inundated. Many residents drowned in their homes and others clung to rooftops hoping to be rescued. Others sought safety at the city's Superdome, but failed to find succor. Indelible images of people there struggling for the necessities of survival among the dead and dying are a shameful reminder of government's inability to serve its citizenry promptly and efficiently in a time of desperate need.
New Orleans might have been the most publicized of Katrina's victims, but it was not the only one. Mississippi was so hard hit that one emergency response official now recalls that he could recognize only a handful of structures along the entirety of Mississippi's coast from the air after Katrina. Many Louisiana parishes suffered similar devastation. All continue to rebuild, though progress is spotty.
Five years after Katrina struck, some areas have been rebuilt, but others languish. Many places remain almost ghost towns, their former residents scattered and unlikely to return home. Indeed, some officials report double digit declines in population. Whether those places will return to their former vibrancy remains a question.
Also unanswered is whether disaster relief agencies have changed their policies. The inability of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cope with Katrina's immediate aftermath has been well documented, as has its failure to manage post-storm repair and rebuilding projects. The same is true of the Army corps of Engineers, implicated in the levee failures.
FEMA and the Corps have improved their performances, according to Louisiana officials and others familiar with the overall response to Katrina. The former has significantly reduced the number of displaced relying on government housing assistance in the last couple of years and streamlined other operations; the latter has repaired and strengthened the area's levees. Problems, however, remain.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., says that "the federal government today ... is not well positioned still to respond to catastrophic disasters. That is what we need to work on." In other words, five years after Katrina, the lessons taught by that hurricane have yet to be fully learned.